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ESSAGE AND 
ELODY ^ ^ ^ 



Richard Burton's Books 



Message and Melody 

$i.oo, net 

Literary Likings 

A Book of Essays jS/.jo 

Memorial Day 

$1.00 

Lyrics of Brotherhood 

$1.00 

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$0.75 



Lothrop Publishing Company 
Boston 



jESSAGE AND 
A Book of Verse 



RICHARD BURTON 




LOTHROP PUBLISHING 
COMPANY, ^ BOSTON 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Copifts Received 

MAR 30 1903 

Copyright Entry 

CLASS (X. XXc. No. 

COPY B, 



Copyright, 1903, 
By Lothrop 
Publishing 
Company. 

all rights reserved 



PUBLISHED MAR., 1903 



I? 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 



Song of the Unsuccessful U 

The Old Santa Fe Trail J5 

The Soul to the Body 17 

Conquerors 19 

Sidney Lanier 23 

To Robert Louis Stevenson 24 

A Ballad of Kinsmen 27 

The Claim of Kindred 31 

Strength in Weakness 34 

The Morning Summons 35 

The City of Laish 37 

Vision 41 

In Time of War 44 

The Background Group 48 

Exit Nightingale 51 

Coronado 55 

The Procession 60 

When the Dream comes True 64 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Poems of Music 67 

An Old Song 69 

Second Fiddle 72 

Street Music 75 

In a Tlieatre 77 

At the Symphony 81 

Violin and Viola 83 

A Waltz Thought 84 

A Catch 86 

A Pianist 87 

Dove Notes 88 

SeaMood8 89 

Sea Rhapsody 90 

A Marsh Message 94 

Lullabies 97 

At First 99 

At Last J02 

Slipper Time J06 

Nature Pieces J09 

The Song of the Open JIJ 

Autumn Corn IJ3 

Quail and Thrush 114 

Early Winter JI5 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

The Fall of the Leaves 116 

Autumn Song 118 

The HUls of Home 119 

The Pine Tree J20 

The Valley 121 

The Bugler from the Peaks 124 

FaU Fields 125 

Nature's Book 126 

Indian Summer 127 

The Broken Promise 128 

On the Death of a Mother 130 

Before a Shrine 132 

The Deserted School 134 

The World Asleep 137 

The Unforgotten 139 

"Words, "Words, Words" 141 

A Forecast 142 

Sound in Silence 144 

Penelope's Lover 145 

Wall Street 146 

Peace out of Pain 148 

Don't Dream, but Do ! 149 

A Ryme for Christmas 152 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Paia J54 

City Streets 155 

Memoriala 157 

The Homing Bird 159 

Then J60 

Creed and Deed 161 

The Unspoken J62 

Prayer Tides J63 

Sanctuary J65 

Revery 167 

The Young Man's Prayer J69 

To a Child Crying J70 

Symbok J7J 

Memories 172 

The Reformer 173 

Hymn for a Town J75 

Our City of Aerial Light 179 

Play-room Poems 181 

Snow and Rain 183 

The "Wind-Broom 185 

Star Ships 186 






ESSAGE AND 
ELODY ^ ^ ^ 




SONG OF THE UNSUCCESSFUL 

lE are the toilers from whom God barred 
The gifts that arc good to hold. 
We meant full well and we tried full 
hard, 
And our failures were manifold. 

And we are the clan of those whose kin 
Were a millstone dragging them down* 

Yea, we had to sweat for our brother's sin, 
And lose the victor's crown. 



II 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



The seeming-abic, who all but scored. 
From their teemingf tribe we come : 

What was there wrong with us, O Lord, 
That oor lives were dark and dumb ? 

The men ten-talented, who still 
Strangely missed of the goal. 

Of them we are : it seems Thy will 
To harrow some in souL 

Wc Site the sinners, too, whose lust 
Conquered the higher claims ; 

We sat us prone in the common dust, 
And played at the devil's games. 



12 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



Wc arc the har d-Iwck folk, who strove 

Zealously, but in vain : 
We lost and lost, while our comrades throve, 

And still we lost again* 

We are the doubles of those whose way- 
Was festal with fruits and flowers ; 

Body and brain we were sound as they, 
But the prizes were not ours. 

A mighty army our full ranks make. 
We shake the graves as we go ; 

The sudden stroke and the slow heartbreak. 
They both have brought us low. 



13 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



And while we are laying life's sword aside. 

Spent and dishonored and sad. 
Our epitaph this, when once we have died : 

** The weak lie here, and the bad/' 

We wonder if this can be really the close, 
Life's fever cooled by death's trance ; 

And we cry, though it seem to our dearest of 
foes, 
** God, give us another chance ! " 



14 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 




THE OLD SANTA FE TRAIL 

^T wound through strange scarred hills, 

down canyons lone 
Where wild things screamed, with winds 
fof company ; 
Its milestones were the bones of pioneers. 
Bronzed, haggard men, often with thirst a-moan. 
Lashed on their beasts of burden toward the sea : 
An epic quest it was of elder years. 
For fabled gardens or for good, red gold 
The trail men strove in iron days of old. 



15 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



To-day the steam-god thondefs through the vast, 
While dominant Saxons from the hurtling trains 
Smile at the aliens, Mexic, Indian, 
Who offer wares, keen-colored, like their past : 
Dread dramas of immitigable plains 
Rebuke the softness of the modern man ; 
No menace, now, the desert's mood of sand ; 
Still westward lies a green and golden land. 

For at the magic touch of water, blooms 
The wilderness, and where of yore the yoke 
Tortured the toilers into dateless tombs, 
Lo ! brightsome fruits to feed a mighty folk* 



i6 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 




THE SOUL TO THE BODY 

^LD maiCf who longf hast friended me 
^ Through many a shift of rain and sun, 
Now that the journey's well-nigh done. 
The wear and tear of Time, I see, 
Threatens a breach 'twixt me and thee. 

For I am strong, as ne'er before, 
While thou art waxen spent, and weak; 
The touch of tears is on thy cheek. 
Thy gait is limp, thy locks are hoar. 
The latch is broken at thy door. 



17 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



Yet burns full bright my lamp within ; 
When it is quenched, what wilt thou do ? 
Dear comrade of the dusk and dew, 
Thou fellow-wrestler against sin 
In conflicts that God helped us win* 

To say good-bye, I cannot bear ; 
By all the bonds of brotherhood, 
If I encounter any good 
Whither I go, 'tis thine to share, — 
Boon friends together, Here or There! 

So, till our parting shall take place, 
I hold this sacred hope the while. 
To light my sorrow with a smile : 
That, when I soar and sing in space, 
I may behold thee face to face ! 



i8 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



CONQUERORS 






]LL times and climes may claim 
you, 
O conquerors, mystic ones : 
How may my poor tongue name you. 
Dreamers 'neath many suns ? 

Makers of stately story, 

Shapers of wood and stone ; 
Painters of colored glory. 

Lovers of rhythmic tone ; 



19 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



Weavers of fabrics wondrous, 

To last through the changeful years ; 
Mages of harmonics thundrous, 

Masters of mirth and tears ; 

Moulders of various beauty 
To challenge all time, and rest 

Secure in a sense of Duty 
Done at an Art's behest ; 

Soldiers, who stood in battle 
Rocks in a righteous cause ; 

Statesmen, who shook the rabble 
Awake to the better laws ; 



20 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



Men of inventingf vision 

Who grapple with clod of cloudy 
Till earth take a gleam elysian 

And matter must speak aloud ; 

Pleaders for stricken masses, 
Men of the speech that sings ; 

Prophets, whose light overpasses 
The thicket of sensate things, — 

All climes and times may claim you. 
But one is your dream, your star : 

Brothers-in-arms we name you. 
Builders of Good ye are. 



21 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



O conquerors, courage, aspire, 
Dream on, while ye kiss the rod ; 

One in your great desire. 
And one in the thought of God* 



22 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 




SIDNEY LANIER 

For a memorial meeting ten years after the poet's death 

HE miffc hangs mute arotind a tomb, 
mildew blight that follows bloom ! 
O sad cessation of a song 
Flote-sweet and like a trumpet strong! 



What do I say ? The dark's ashine 
With soul-light that is surely thine* 
What do I say ? The silence breaks 
In music that thy spirit makes. 



23 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



TO ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON 

t^^|JEAR ghost, — whose ruddy presence needs 
lll^^^l^ must fling; 

A ray of cheer among thy brother 
shades 
In yon pale land of Sleep, — thy legacy 
The years make richer* 

For the fellowship 
Of gallant sottls who move down stirring ways 
Of blithe adventure ; for the moods of dream 
That blossomed, at the conjuring call of Art, 
Into Life's festal flowers of Romance ; 



24 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



Fof lyric interludes of Songf, whose sound 
Comes in pathetic cadences j for words 
Apt, rare, and full of wisdom, touching deeps 
On deeps of human passion : for such gifts 
Surely the guerdon is love's long renown. 

But most, O Qjmrade ours, we owe to thee 

For that brave gospel thou didst ever bring — 

Not pulpit- wise, but sweet as speech of birds : 

Courage and kindliness and joy-of-life 

Even in its motley and keen-edged with pain ; 

High spirit against evil, and the laugh 

Unbitter ; and that indomitable belief 

In brotherhood. 'Twould shame us, looking on 

Thy struggle and thy triumph, should we play 

The craven ; yea, thy present happy peace 

Heartens all laggards. 



25 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



Therefore seems it meet 
To hail thee hero, fondly to recall 
Thy valiant days, thy victory over doom, — 
Child of delight and heir of loveliness, 
Great friend, whose followers woold fain be true. 



26 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 




A BALLAD OF KINSMEN 

PIA BAY wears a smooth, bright face 

When the tropic winds are low, 
But the harbor carve is a fearsome place 
When the great winds rise and blow. 

'Tis perilous for barks to ride 

At anchor, when the surge 
Comes thundering in from the sea outside 

And foams on the rocky verge* 



27 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



From the Western States three ships were there, 

And one from the English Isle; 
They came when the skies were bland and fair. 

And the ocean ways a-smile. 

But the fierce storms smote them, till they tossed 

Like chips, 'twixt sea and sky ; 
And two of the ships of the States were lost. 

And the other drifted nigh 

The coral reefs, to death ; but saw 

The sturdy English ship 
Out from the harbo/s seething maw 

Toward open water slip. 



28 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



And sotc they yearned to follow hef 

Beyond the barrier foam, 
To swap their coral sepulchre 

For the sea-Ieagoes leading home ; 

But the ill-starred Trenton could not sail 
Nor steam ; with beams aburst, 

A helpless hulk before the §fale. 
She staggered toward the Worst. 

Yet, as the English, inch by inch. 
Away from the shallows drew. 

The boys of the States, they did not flinch. 
For they cheered the other crew. 



29 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



Yca^ never a soul showed craven then, 
Though their fate was plain to see ; 

The doomed men waved to the luckier men 
And gave them three times three. 

Three times three, and the cheer rang high 
Above the wind and the wave, 

As the English ship strained safely by. 
And the other on to her grave ! 

Oh, blood will tell, they were kinsmen all ! 

Give the gallant lads a place 
On the good high-seats of the heroes' hall 

To kindle our common race ! 



30 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



THE CLAIM OF KINDRED 

V^@|^/ AM not one, but many: murmuring 
^]li4} throw 8:h 

My blood I seem to hear a blended cry, 
Ancestral-strong:, bidding me up and do 
A million deeds before I come to die. 

Some of the voices call like organ tones 
Upon my soul for service that is meet ; 

Others unman me with melodious moans 
Or evil invitations perilous-sweet. 



31 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



Some tell of high endeavor on the seas, 
Some, bogle-clear, declare that war is best ; 

Some lull me to a dream of summer ease 
In far-away, fair places where is rest. 

Betwixt high heaven and hell the ample air 
Thrills with their pleadings, vibrates to their 
breath ; 

Deep in my heart I feel their vast despair. 

Their every hope, their game of life and death. 

It is as though a countless company 

Drew a great circle round me, and did press 

Their myriad claims nor would not let me be 
Until unto them all I answered. Yes, 



32 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



I am not one, but many : all the past 

Houses within my breast and summons me ; 

And only God shall speak the word at last 
To quell the storm and ^ivc the mastery, 

Since thus, despite my cherished pride of will, 
The passions of my kindred clasp me still ! 



33 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



STRENGTH IN WEAKNESS 



B 



OT in the morning vigor, Lord, am I 
Most sure of Thee, bat when the day 
goes by 

To evening and, all spent with work, my head 
Is bowed, my limbs are laid wpon my hed, 
Lo! in my weariness is faith at length. 
Even as children's weakness is their strength* 



34 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 




THE MORNING SUMMONS 

'HEN the mist is on the river, and the 
haze is on the hills. 
And the promise of the springtime all 
the ample heaven fills ; 
When the shy things in the wood-haunts, and 

the hardy on the plains, 
Catch op heart and feel a leaping life through 
winter-sluggish veins : 



35 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



Then the summons of the morning like a bugle 
moves the blood, 

Then the soul of man grows larger like a flower 
from the bud ; 

For the hope of high Endeavor is a cordial half 
divine, 

And the banner cry of Onward ! calls the lag- 
gards into line* 

There is glamour of the moonlight when the 
stars rain peace below, 

But the stir and smell of morning is a better 
thing to know ; 

While the night is hushed and holden and trans- 
pierced by dreamy song, 

Lo ! the dawn brings dew and fire and the rap- 
ture of the strong. 



36 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



THE CITY OF LAISH 

" Then the five men departed and came to Laish and saw 
the people that were therein, how they dwelt careless, . . . 
quiet, and secure, and had no business with any men." 

R^^^AVE you read of the Orient people of 
yiwHlKl] Laish in the olden time, 

In the days when to battle was good 

and to kill was held no crime ? 
How they dwelt at quiet, and had nor business 

nor bicker with man, 
Until they were smqie by the sword in the gftip 

of the chieftains of Dan ? 



37 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



The people of Dan came down and smote with 

the edge of the sword 
And builded a city therein, being led thereto of 

the Lord ; 
And the name of the city was changed from 

Laish, as they called it of yore, 
To Dan of the Danites, who came and conquered 

her people in war* 

Since so it is written, we honor the host that the 

victors became, 
And righteously vanquished the foemen and 

wreathed their towers in flame ; 
Like a fiat of flame they descended, for so they 

were guided of God, 
And so was the future unfolded by sweeps of His 

terrible rod. 



38 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



And yet in my heart there must harbor a feeling 

of pity and pain 
Because of the people so peaceful, who never 

might mingle again 
In streets of their love and their childhood, in 

Laish, their home-city, that lay 
As far from the worries of worldlings, as night 

time is far from the day. 

And it seems that the glory of battle, the gory 
red signs of the same. 

Are pitiful-poor when we set them hesidc the 
lost calm of that name 

All dwellers in cities must mention whenso they 
would speak of a spot 

Where men were at quiet and peaceful, and mur- 
mur of war there was not. 



39 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



Will some day that is hope of the dreamer, some 

place never chanted in song". 
Show peace in its borders unbroken, where men 

are both gentle and strong ? 
Shall the Iamb e'er be couched with the lion? 

Men ask it and look to the sky ; 
Christ came and his presence declared it, so the 

dream may not utterly die. 



40 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



VISION 



m 



^Y the boom of a bright, great sea. 
Once, under a tropic sky, 
In a scented night that was all alight 
With stars a-throb on high. 
Unsealed were the eyes of me : 



For the earth beneath my tread 
Shrank, and was like a smoke. 

And the mighty deep and the skyey steep, 
To their vasty truth I woke. 
All the majesty overhead* 



41 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



With the universe I whirled, 
Of its length and breadth aware, 

Man's petty hates and his passing fates 
Seemed less than empty air 
In the light of the larger world. 

I looked, as a living soul, 

Into the eyes of God, 
And I understood both bad and good 

In the scourging of His rod. 

And saw the uhimate goaL 

Across abysms flung 

I heard the ocean's speech 

And the pulsing stars explained the scars 
They suffered, each from each, 
When the universe was young. 



42 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



Ohf the splendid sense of space ! 

And the selfhood vanished quite 
In a shoreless sphere where day and year^ 

Morningf and noon and night 

Are one before God's face ! 

Wrapt in that vision wide, 

I seemed to briefly know 
God's ancient plan for the weal of man ; 

Under Time's ebb and flow. 

Eternity's sure tide. 



43 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



IN TIME OF WAR 



a 



OW who shall read the writing: 
That is writ upon the wall ? 
Shall the peoples cease from fight- 
ing? 
Shall the good days come at all ? 

For the proud of earth do levy 

Goldt that battles may be won. 
And a burden direful heavy 

Bends the father and the son* 



44 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



Thougfh out own inviolate borders 
Widen out a myriad miles, 

Wc are hailed as dread marauders 
In the ultimate far isles* 

Though in Europe's mood of kindness 
Peace is mooted for a day, 

Lo ! there comes a mood of blindness, 
And red ravin has its way. 

Yet the earth's stern law is spoken 

In the march of centuries. 
That the weak for good are broken. 

That the strong must rule the seas. 



45 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



We may conquci* in all gladness 
If the cause be pare and high ; 

We can beat the passing sadness 
For the blessing by and by. 

When, to spread the benefactions 
Of the world, the sword is swung, 

We may glimpse through storm-wrapt 
factions 
God^s own lights in heaven hung. 

Where, to lift a land's downtrodden. 
Bullets sing and cannons boom. 

There, though battle-fields be sodden. 
Shall God's flowers freshly bloom* 



46 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



When the bfoad earth's blinded races 
Strive but for some heavenly stake. 

And the higher life replaces 

The brief hell that weapons make ; 

Then, with sound of exaltations 
Shall the better times begin, 

Then, ye captains of the nations. 
Shall the Prince of Peace come in. 



47 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



THE BACKGROUND GROUP 



m 



HE crowd huzzas, the music madly plays; 
'Tis meet, for, lo ! it is the day of days. 
The home-returning heroes come: a 
cry 
Of welcome should be lifted to the sky 
And flowers strew the people-trampled ways. 



48 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



The droms teat martially ; with rhythmic beat 
The steps resound along the gaping street. 

Hark, what acclaims ! And how the folk do 

press 
To see, to touch, maybe, the very dress 
Of those who dared the death, when Life is 
sweet! 

But stay ! where joy is general, where the sound 
Of jubilant voices rends the air around, 
Why is yon group so silent in its place. 
With wa/s impassioned image face to face ? 
"Wherefore those eyes cast nunlike on the ground ? 



49 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



Who are these hangfers-back, these dark-robed 
ones? 

They are the mothers who are reft of sons ; 
The wives whose dearest lie all tincaressed 
Afar, with vital stains on brow or breast ; 

The children orphaned at the mottths of guns. 



50 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 




EXIT NIGHTINGALE 

(Anton Nachtigallt xged 34> a shop foreman, shot himself 
dead yesterday. He was sick and discouraged.— Morning 
NeTVspaper,) 

iHASTLY contrast, God's grim joke I 

Here's a man who, on a morn. 
Very weary, hopeless, spoke : 
** I am ot»t of work, and scorn. 
Want and ugliness are mine*'' 
So this creature, made divine 
(So they tell us) simply shot 
His weak brains out — there's your plot I 



51 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



Nothing; in it, say you ? Stale ? 
True, 'tis but a common tale, 
But the story gives me pause 
For a moment's space, because 
This poor breaker of God's laws 
Bore the name of — Nightingale ! 

Somewhere in the years behind, 
When men's names were first assumed — 
Tinker Tom or John the Smith, 
Handier to travel with — 
Somebody was this assigned : 
Nightingale. . ♦ ♦ Belike there bloomed 
On his cheek the badge of health 
And he had, instead of wealth. 
Music for his gift, could sing. 
Play the fiddle, lead the folk 
Down the jolly dancing-ring; 



52 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



Make them thus forget their jokCf 
In some village . • * long ago* 
Merry lad, who far and wide 
Up and down the countryside 
Piped before the people so ! 
Thus, the name bespoke the man* 

Latterly there came a change 

In this very pretty plan 

And a name meant naught at all* 

Taylors sat within the Hall, 

Kings in hovels — passing strange ! 

Time's inexorable jest 

Mocked the high and blurred the best. 

So with Nightingale, — he fell 

From his pristine grove and — well^ 

Found himself in songless hell* 



53 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



Heigho, how the world is run I 
Morn of glory, night of shame, 
Worms that crawl from o«t a btid. 
Every day 'twixt s«n and sun 
Some poor devils singing name 
Is wiped out in city mud. 



54 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



H 



CORONADO 

IN the beach at Coronado curves the shotc 
in crescent wise» 
And the blue of sky and water merge 
divinely to the eyes; 
Dim, fair islands lift like phantoms from the bright 

Pacific floor, 
And the breakers fall but blandly where the sea- 
gulls dip and soar. 



55 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



There a spell of scented languoi* seems to still the 

pulse of pain, 
And perpetual springtide hovers over land and 

slumbrous main, 
There the blooms are lush and brilliant, there 

some great ship, wearing west. 
Seems to pause as loath at leaving all a haven 

holds of rest. 

And the idler, lapped in pleasance, charmed to 

dreams by sound and sight, 
As he watches dawn or sunset or the sweeping 

stars of night. 
Lets his mind go groping backward to the 

strenuous pioneers. 
When the red-gold fever took them in the far, 

untranquil years ; 



56 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



To the Spaniards with their visions — quick to 
fancy were they then — 

Of some vast and hoarded treasures; Coronado 
and his men ; 

To the splendid quests and tumults^ to the tor- 
ments and defeats^ 

To the rovers by the rivers and the pirates in 
their fleets* 

But so fleckless are the heavens, and such peace 

is found below, 
In the sea-companioned gardens where the great 

blooms wax and blow, 
Such a slow and sweet siesta bring the magical 

warm noons, 
That all anguishes and ardors arc unreal as 

ancient runes. 



57 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



So it is — until a storm-wind rolls the billows up 

the coast, 
And the nigfht is thick with portents, and the 

keen air's clamoring host 
Fills the vault — ah, then returning;, trooping; 

back refreshed and strong. 
Come the old-time, lost marauders, ruling men 

with sword and songf. 

And they cry with clangorous voices when they 

sight a timid sail. 
And their drinking-bouts are mighty as the 

hours to dawn go pale ; 
Royally do they foregather and their Presences 

resume 
All the potency of living, as they revel in the 

gloom. 



58 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



But with day, behold the languoif and the beauty- 
all f estored. 

Once again the waters gentle, once again divine 
accord 

Twixt the earth and swooning heavens, while 
the sand in crescent wise 

Curves to meet the benediction of the Californian 
skies. 



59 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



THE PROCESSION 



"■ 



^OW let oor womankind tend hearth 
and house^ 
Obey and love, receive, in turn, dae love 
Of husbands, brothers, sons who battle for 
Their wants and welfare in the outer ways. 
And so fulfil the Law* This sums the whole/' 



Thus spake Sir Oracle. Meanwhile, meseemed 
Through mists of time I saw in rich array 
Pass by a white procession, one by one : 



60 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



The swaft-browcd qaeen whose Eastern Sov- 
ereignty 
Was large, bat larger yet her passionate sway 
Over two men who made the "Western world, 
Caesar and Antony, both at her feet. 
And then, bright Helen, Menelaos' wife. 
And Paris' leman in a golden day ; 
So fair that poets e'er since have joyed to sing 
Her loveliness, which claimed its hecatombs 
Of victims, Greeks and Trojans battailows. 
Next, Magdalen, whose penitence is famed 
And precious, and the Mary men revere, 
Walking in sisterwise, with equal mien. 
Save that the Mother's brow was full-content. 
The Maiden's wistful. Then proud Joan of Arc, 



6i 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



A peasant yet a princess, with a light 
Fanatic yet divine within her eyes ; 
A martyr's eyes that look through flames to God ! 
The while the lips say : ** Patience^ 'tis for France*'* 
And Sappho, fillet-bound about the head, 
Chanting swift lyric lays beside the sea 
Aegean blue, — lays soft yet strong withal. 
Since still we hear, albeit brokenly* 
Hypatia, too, whose spirit was not quenched 
By mob-defiance nor untimely death. 
Strode gravely sweet and calm ; and Portia, she 
That donned a mannish habit for the nonce 
And plead with angel-tongue for Mercy's place 
Along with formal justice. Shyly there 
Came Sister Dorothea, half a Saint 



62 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



Yet all a woman^ binding: wounds and sores; 
Her passing was a breath from the Command : 
''Unto, the least of these my brethren/' — 

These, yea, and many more filed by, until 
The mist grew mythic and they faded out 
Into the common light of day : anon, 
Again I heard the little, piping voice 
Make deposition as to woman's worth* 



63 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



WHEN THE DREAM COMES TRUE 

^^^ SHALL sec far plainer than I do 

^|K) Here and now, when what I dream is 

come: 
They that love me not, my slips shall rue, 

Those I love not, deeming dull and dumb, 
I shall wafce to find full fellowsome. 

When my dream comes true. 



64 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



Lightest words that worked for me and you 
Barriers that clomb to mowntain heights ; 

Little deeds that into great wrongs grew, 
All for lack of flashing heaven-lights, 

Shall be smoothed and shapened all to rights, 
When my dream comes true* 

It may even be the love I woo 

Blindly now, my vision choked with tears, 
Then shall understand me, know how true 

Was the heart struck voiceless through its fears; 
Ah ! a moment shall make sweet the years, 

When my dream comes true ! 



65 



POEMS OF MUSIC 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 




I 

AN OLD SONG 

HERE'S a ballad of quaint love-Ionging 

That often I yearn to hear, 
Fot it sets the memories thronging 
And wakens a by-gone year. 



The words were but simple and pretty^ 

With a tender final fall, 
Yet I swear that this old-time ditty 

Still holds my heart in thrall* 



69 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



It was sttngf by a girl whose fashion 
Can never grow stale nor old; 

But she and her young soul's passion 
Lie quiet in graveyard mould. 

It was not the music, I fancy, 
Nor the story — but just the way 

She sang, and the necromancy 
"Wrought by a dear, dead day. 

At times they will play it to me 
Now — but my heart sinks low ; 

It isn't the same that drew me 
There in the long ago* 



70 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



I miss the meaning; *tis broken — 

The spell of singer and song ; 
I sigh for a vanished token, 

For a magic of yore I long ; 

For the place where the voice would waver 
And a sob rise up in the throat, 

For the little pathetic quaver 
That wasn't on any note! 



71 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 




SECOND FIDDLE 

UST behind the first fiddle he bends 
To his bow, as a slave to the rod ; 
All his soul to the music he lends, 
All his eyes to the leader, his god. 



His skill is not blaringf, btit swre ; 

Mark his bowingf, the rhythmic accord 
Of his motions, the sound, crystal-pure. 

That he lures from the violin's board* 



72 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



The crowd never look at his face ; 

He is one of the sixty who try 
With wood-wind or brass to displace 

The world by a dream from the sky. 

Not his, like the master of strings, 
To step forth superbly alone 

And play a Cremona that sings 
With heavenliest tone upon tone. 

No soloist he, but a part 

In the mighty ensemble that soars 
In the regions divine of an art 

Where man but aspires and adores. 



73 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



His joy is the gladness of those 
Who feel they are helping the whole ; 

Less fluent the harmony flows 
If an instrument flag^ if a soul 

Unfaithful should be to the beat 
Of the baton that bids him be true ; 

And the music is ofttimes so sweet, 
Small matter what makes it, of who* 

And haply — who knows ? — in the day 
"When the ultimate piece is rehearsed, 

Shall come his Great Moment to play. 
And the fiddle called second, be first. 



74 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



m. 

STREET MUSIC 



1^^ how the dancc-tane trips it through the 
l^^l^ street. 

Making steps rhythmic, blood the Iwstier 
beat! 
Throwing a thought of love and holiday 
Into the midst of Trade's most prosy way. 



75 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



Look yonder : it is but an aged crone 
Crouched in a corner, wrinkled and alone, 
Half-dazed, who feebly grinds an organ small. 
Craving scant pence and sun — and that is all. 

As soon Fd think to hear a gargoyle sing, 
A death-mask speak a lyric word of spring. 
As yonder hag fill all the drowsy air 
With music making Life alert and fain 

****** 

Yet hark, again the strain, the walt2-tune glad. 
The sudden rapture, the abandon mad. 
From a bleared woman, sick and old and sad ! 



7^ 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 




IV. 

IN A THEATRE 

IDDLE-SOUNDS in a fo«I, pent place; 
Seaxns of sin on every face 



Uplooking there from the seats below, 
Fool-mouthed men and a shameless show* 

A young girl stepping upon the stage ; 
The singing of songs is half her wage, 



71 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



Selling her soul the other half ; 

They greet her now with a jeering laugh. 

A face that somehow hints of good, 
Though stamped with all of the demonhood 

That comes to souls that God made white 
Given over to shame and night* 

And lo ! she sings. The song that broke 
Her lips had naught of jibe or joke. 

*Twas ** Annie Laurie/* and her face 
Lost, the while, its old disgrace, 



78 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



Her voice gtew soft and sweet and clear ; 
She sang as thottgh the words were dear. 

Till the angel woke in every man. 
And memories stirred as memories can 

Though seeming dead for long, wrong years ; 
Memories stirred and so did tears. 

The reeking air turned meadow-sweet, 
And daisies danced beneath their feet. 

While each man walked with his love or bride 
In the morning-break on the mountain-side* 



79 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



She ceased* No sound of plaudits came 

From the foul-mouthed men in the place of shame. 

But one man sobbed and the rest were still ; 
And the God above had worked his will. 



80 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



AT THE SYMPHONY 

^^^ SIT and listen and love ft all, 
^M) Here by the orchestra. 

The violins, how they plead and call, 
Taking the voice of her ! 

The brasses brave have a martial tone. 

The cymbals clash in strife : 
The grave bassoons half muse, half moan. 

Chanting the deeps of life. 



8i 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



The 'cellos brood and the fltttes rise clear 

In a cry that soars and sings ; 
The rippling harps ensnare mine ear 

With a vibrant rash of wings* 

O sweet with words no lips may dare, 

This speech of the orchestra ! 
And yet — that burst from the wood- wind there ■ 

Was it weal or woe of her? 



82 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



VIOLIN AND VIOLA 

T times, when, with an anguish all too 
keen, 
The violin doth tensely tcII of grief. 
Tugging at heart-strings till the tale, I ween. 

Is over-cruel, calls for some relief : 
I joy to hear, like cooings of lost doves. 
The grave viola plaining of old loves* 




83 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



VIL 

A WALTZ THOUGHT 

(To Edoard Strauss) 

[HEN a man's ptime passion, for years 
on years, 
Is giving birth to bright waltz airs. 
That are quick with life and love that cheers, 
And sweet as the bloom that the springtide 
wears; 

*Tis a fancy sad and strange withal. 
To dream he must lie in a tomb some day 

And hear no longer the soft clear call 
Of music, once that he heard alway. 




84 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



For I almost deem he would keep awake, 
And list to the song of the mountain stream, 

Would hark to the sound that the tf eetops make, 
Ot the voice that follows the lightning's gleam ; 

Would seize all melodies Nature knows, 
To fit the passion that haunts him still. 

Till out of them all a wild strain grows 
Graced and fashioned to suit his will ; 

Would down in his grave our pulses stir, — 
Fancy him there in the chilly vaults, 

Singing e'en in his sepulchre. 

Subtly shaping his witching waltz ! 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



VHL 
A CATCH 



m 

m 



LONG comes Love 
In the semblance of a boy, 
And he rings a little bell, 

And he sings a little song : 

Lo, the change thereof ! 

Heaven after hell, 

Beauty healing wrong. 

And grief turned joy ! 



86 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



IX. 
A PIANIST 



1^^^' ^^ stormy hands went down the crashing 

jjg^ keys. 

Making a tumult wild of billowy sound ; 
Fear roused his head, dark Passion too was there. 
Twin mighty presences that shook the air. 

But sweet the resolution : wind-swept seas 
Sank magically, and up from Lifers profound 
Stole shining Peace that spread from shore to 

shore. 
Till heaven seemed nigh and Love was evermore. 



87 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



DOVE NOTES 



n 



HE soft, strange note of the doves, to 

what may we liken the sound. 
As they flutter high at the eaves or flock 
for food to the ground ? 
Their murmurings shy, remote, like a lost year's 

memory seem. 
Like melody heard under water, or music dimmed 
by a dream* 



88 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



SEA MOODS 



m 



HERE IS music free in the waves of the 

sea^ 
Rejoicingf by all his coasts: 
Bttt the salt thereof is his agfony 
O^er the wrecks and the buried hosts* 



89 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



SEA RHAPSODY 



L 




Y day, the tfemble of the boat, 
As the engine throbs like a human 
heart ; 

The tang: of the untainted air, salt, free. 
Roaming long leagues of brine ; 
The tidal lift and the slow swing, now the craft 

buries her nose in the billows ; 
The sky of central blue, tapering down to misty 

opal at the sea line. 
And all around, the unsteady sapphire of the 
ocean* 



90 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



11. 

At night, snug in the cabin, cheerful with lamps, 
With food and drink and the talk of cronies : 
Hard by, the friendly lights of the ships ; 
Far above, aloof, the homeless flicker of stars 
In their high, impenetrable places. 



91 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



IIL 

Then, sleep, midst the tock of the waves, 

To dfeam of deat ones distant on land. 

With a sense of lesion from all the ways of earth, 

A return to savage, sane realities : 

The tameless revels of strange, marine creatures ; 

The hoarse voices of winds and waters, 

The hidden treasures of the deep. 

Wide-scattered, inestimable, not to be 
named. 
The face of tan, the boy's heart. 
The lost yet inextinguishable gust of youth, ex- 
ultant once more* 



92 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



IV. 

Old Earth, the mother, sends forth her sons 
To adventttte with the ancient, hoar, gammer 

sea; 
Ever hereafter, as they come back and walk 
The dusty, fevered streets, and bargain in the 

marts, 
And sicken with heat and the sight of men. 
Will they carry at heart a cool, quieting thought. 
And yearn betimes for the ocean's open roads. 
For the rigors and raptures of the sailor life. 
The footless trail, the horizon's lovely lure, the 

sting and lull 
Of elemental water wastes. 
Restless, that yet bring rest. 



93 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 




A MARSH MESSAGE 

In Memoriam : Olivia Susan Clemens 

HE melancholy matshes brood 

all their rich monotony : 
Beyond them, in a twilight mood, 
The more than melancholy sea* 

A seemly spot for news of death : 
The message comes, with tidal pain j 

The ancient f aring-forth of breath. 
The yowng laid low, the lovely slain. 



94 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



Hef life was one that, river-sweet. 
O'er sonny uplands ran, — but then 

Inexorably plunged to meet 

The under waves that wait for men. 

The lethal waters, salt and still, 
Wherover mystery bides; the Vast 

Whose voice is mystic, and whose will 
Is stronger than our will at last. 

* * # * # 

The marsh is troubled in its dream 
By a faint, tremulous stir of air : 

Is it the passing of the stream, 
The young fresh soul that was so fair ? 



95 



LULLABIES 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 




I. 

AT FIRST 

ABY, the legends say 
Angfels are here. 
Keeping all harm away 
That would come near* 
There is a warmer thing 

Guarding thee, babyling. 
Than any angel- wing: 
It is my love so deep ; 
Then sleep, child, sleep. 



LofC. 



99 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



Baby, I cannot tcII 

How strangely fair 

Are towcf and citadel 
That glisten there 

In the sleep-country wide; 
Wonders on every side 
Wait thee and there abide : 
Marvels by wood and stream: 
So dream, child, dream* 



100 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



Baby, mttch-tr avelled one, 
When thoa hast seen 

Dawn, noon and set of s«n 
In sleep-lands green, 

Haply thou wilt be fain 

With all thy might and main 
Homeward to torn again. 
Is't so ? For home's sweet sake. 
Then wake, child, wake! 



lOI 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



AT LAST 



m 

m 



WITHERED face with great brown 

eyes 
That grazed through unwept tears ; 
A smile on the mouth in motherwise. 
And tender, full of years. 

Stretched on the sand a man, not old, 

With features warped by sin, 
And bad, albeit now death-cold, 

All passion dead within» 



1 02 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



But ever the mother sat above 
Her son and rocked and sang. 

As though deep stirred by baby-love, 
While thus her cracked voice rang : 

** Sun-gold thy hair, darling. 
Sleep, thou art fair, darling. 
Shut down thy pretty eyes ; 
Father is on the sea. 
Nobody's by but me. 
Sleep, for the waters rise*'' 

So sang the fish-wife, bending o'er 
Her boy, just drowned and dead ; 

Crazed in her mind, the days of yore 
Kept revel in her head. 



103 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



** W"hen thoti art old, dar lingf. 
Grown brave and bold, darlingf. 
Then thou shalt have a wife j 
Now thou art only mine, 
Little and fair and fine, 
Helpless in all thy life.** 

The man lay still, and the sullen look 

Was ever on his face ; 
His deeds read dark in the judgment book ; 

His lot had been disgrace* 

But the mother hugged the body wet. 
Gray-haired, and dazed in brain. 

As I walked away she was singing yet, 
Over and o'er again : 



104 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



** *Tis time to wake, dar lingf, 
See! light will break, d&tlingp 
Yonder across the quay ; 
Come, wee one, kiss me now, 
Soft on my cheek and brow ; 
Wake for the love of me, 

My boy, my joy, — 
For the love of me, — for me ! ** 



105 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 




SLIPPER TIME 

IS a homely time of ease and rest^ 
When the day dies out in the tuddy 
west 
And the lamps ate lit and the hearth fire leaps, 
And the children go to their early sleeps ; 

When the dear ones talk of their doingfs small 
And a sense of peace is on them all. 
For the cool, calm nigfht must stretch between 
To-morrow's toil and to-day's flushed scene ; 



io6 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



When memories throng and the word of cheer 
Is sometimes nigh to the secret tear. 
For the soul at lounge will range full far. 
From the pit of shame to the highest star. 

The sound of music perhaps is heard, 
But the instrument ot the uttered word 
Alike are sweet, since love in both 
Is immanent and nothing loath. 

So the home folk feel, as the hours slip by. 
That Life is kind and that every sigh 
Is fellowed close by some pleasant thing. 
That laughter follows on suffering. 



107 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



Tis a shade-tf cc set in a desert space ; 
In a discord harsh 'tis a note of grace ; 
'Tis the harmony of the perfect rhyme, 
This homely, human slipper time. 



io8 



NATURE PIECES 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 




L 
THE SONG OF THE OPEN 



LOVE a level reach of land, 

That winds have room to torn in ; 
I love in open fields to stand 

That hosts of flowers bum in. 



I love far-stretching paths of sea 

Of turbulence unended, 
And salty smells, that make in me 

A life that's new and splendid* 



III 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



I love full well the naked sky, 
Wind-swept and hale and cheerful j 

For under her big voice can I 
Shake off my troubles tearful* 

And so I turn, when so I may. 
From toil and moil of daytime. 

To hurry to the field away. 
And dare to have a play-time ! 

Again returning, all my thought 

Is lightsomer and sweeter, 
And songs upspring, though all unsought. 

In love's forgotten metre. 



112 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



IL 

AUTUMN CORN 

HE withered autumn shocks of com 
Are Indian braves, who stand 
a-row 
With wind-blown hair and look forlorn, 

And brood upon the long; agfo. 
Sere is their dress, and sere their mind, 
With tribe and totem far behind. 




113 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



IIL 
QUAIL AND THRUSH 



m 



HE quail's staccato call from out the wood 
Comes clear unto mine ear ; 
But in the thrush's note is mistihood, — 
Meseems you hear 
His message only with the brooding mind, 
Blent in with memories, borne on last year's wind. 



114 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



IV. 
EARLY WINTER 



^^^ROWN gffass, picked out with red of 
bushes, tones 
Of silver on the fences ; russet, bronze. 
The leaves of oaks and beeches ; mystic black 
Where pools of water lie, and edgfed thereround 
The ghostly glamour of the shallow ice. 
Above, a gray-white monody of sky. 
And all between the heaven and earth a mist 
Of fine, fast-falling snow that makes a veil 
Wherethrough you see a mystery, a blend 
Of winter colors to a perfect whole 
That lifts the heart with beauty, doth atone 
For long-withholden loveliness of June* 



115 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



THE FALL OF THE LEAVES 

lOWN they come by millions, 
Pied and aspen things. 
Dancing airy cotillons, 

Drifting on wind-swept wings. 
With a music delicate yet clear. 
Thick they fall, in their painted cheer, 
Down the alleys old of the outworn year* 




ii6 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



Gay-heart hopes and visions 

Mingled with their fall ; 
Memories of elysians 

Buoyed them one and all* 
Faded, meek, and still they lie 
Under foot, and the farer-by 
Treads them in nor sees them die* 

Peace ! they have done their duty. 

Now is the time for rest. 
Peace ! they have shown us beauty ; 

Now, on the mother-breast 
They repose : their day was bright. 
On the tremulous trees they had delight ; 
Now comes sleep and the soothe of night. 



117 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



VI. 
AUTUMN SONG 

KEEN west wind from the hills away, 

A rwstle of curled brown leaves, 
A blazon of colors, — O Autumn day. 
How Memory subtly weaves 
Into your scents and leaf-lit fires 

Hopes and dreamings and dead desires. 




ii8 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



VIL 
THE HILLS OF HOME 



m 



jFTER the mighty levels of the "West, 
The far horizon and the open qoest, — 
Back to the land of mists and memories, 
Hooded with trees and topped by dappled skies. 
Back to the valleys, whence the sttn opclomb 
The hills of home ! 

Now let my dead youth have her way with me ; 
This is a dream-while ; I am glad to be 
Penned in by orchards, set about with pines. 
Lured down long vistas that the soul divines ; 
The West anon, — boylike to-day I roam 
The hills of home ! 



119 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



THE PINE TREE 

^^^HE sombre pine is a Norseman grave 
1^^ Brooding some saga old, 

Calmly chanting a solemn stave. 

Scorning the winter's cold* 
There's a Norland so«l in this ancient tree. 

And he ne'er forgets his ancestry. 



120 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



IX. 
THE VALLEY 

MHAVE seen a valley lyingf 
Underneath the yellow moon, 
When the winds had ceased their 
sigfhing:, 
And the trees were all a-swoon. 

And the soond of rivers rushing 
Filled the night, and made it seem 

Like to angel-gfarments brushing 
Through wide spaces in a dream* 



121 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



Then my soul has filled with gladness. 
Shy, withal, bwt tender-deep ; 

And the daytime with its madness 
Seemed afar, and put to sleep : 

For the riddles past divining 
In the noontide press of men. 

All grew plainer in the shining 
Of the sky's fair citizen. 

Life turned easy, trust was stronger. 
Blossoms sprang from all my ills. 

As I lingered long and longer 
In the silence of the hills : 



122 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



Till I loved the valley lyingf 
Underneath the yellow moon. 

Where the winds had ceased their sighing*. 
And the trees were all a-swoom 



123 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



X. 

THE BUGLER FROM THE PEAKS 

(HAT is this cry that sudden seems to 
shake 
The keen^ still mountain aether wide 
awake. 
Until the vast and candid snows of night 
Sound vibrantly on every doming height ? 

Hark, how it swells ! The very stars do hear ! 
This upper fastness reads the message clear ; 
Her ancient language Mother-nature speaks : 
The bull-elk bugles midst the topmost peaks ! 




124 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



XL 
FALL FIELDS 



v ^i ^ ' HE sobef-golden fields lie soaked in light, 
Sj^^ Like a great tug with patterns inter- 
plight 
Of tint and tone ; God's ancient place, the sky. 
Turns paler blue above such tapestry. 



125 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



xn. 

NATURFS BOOK 






HE tender green of willows by a stream 
springftime, or the impressionable pools 
That duplicate the streaks of yellow sky 
At sunset, give me food for many a dream, 
Instruct mc more than cunning- of the schools, 



Bidding me kindly live, and calmly die. 



126 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 




xm. 

INDIAN SUMMER 

JECURE in full fftiition doth she rest, 
With mellow lights of golden afternoon 
Touching the placid joy of brow and 
breast ; 
Thus to behold her is to hark a tone 
Played chantwise, yet firm-founded upon peace, 
And glad of all the stormy year's release 
From passion's summer-world. So have I seen 
In tranced November come a day more rare 
Than any Spring could muster, ne'er to be 
Forgotten* How unfathomably fair 
Appears this tranquil creature unto me, 
This woman ample-natured, Autumn's queen! 



127 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



XIV. 
THE BROKEN PROMISE 



m 
m 



FTER the crisp of fall. 
There is beautiful summer weather i 
In the air is a wondrous Call, 
And tied things strain at their tether, 
And creeping and flying things 
"Walk swift or essay their wings. 

Then, a cold Word comes in the night. 

Bringing a message of blight ; 

And the creeping things and the flying 

(Ah, the myriad lives effaced. 

And the pity of trust misplaced !) 

At morn, are all dead or dying. 



128 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



Man, in his knowledge, hath understood : 
Bwt the humbler folk of the earth and air 
In their vast and vocal brotherhood 
(They only petition for living-room) 
Do fondly dream that the Spring has come. 
Till their very blood beats frolicsome ; 
But they misinterpret a Semblance fair. 
And a Broken Promise is their doom* 



129 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



ON THE DEATH OF A MOTHER 






LITTLE maiden, her doll to her 
Was love and daughter and comforter ; 
Her eyes, far better than speaking could, 
Guessed and gossiped of motherhood. 



One day they put at her breast her boy, 
And she knew the splendid mother-joy. 
After the agony, ah, the bliss 
Summed in that sacred, birthright kiss ! 



130 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



Now, the old mother who broods us all 
Folds her fast, and she heeds the call ; 
Earth to earth, but she knows no fear, — 
Mother to mother means dear to dear* 



131 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 




BEFORE A SHRINE 

HREE lilies grew in a gfarden 
That looked upon the sea ; 
These lilies white, they had a right 
To be beloved of me. 
I ask no man a pardon 
That, all within my garden, 
I loved those lilies three* 

Three men came in my garden, 

Three men from o'er the sea ; 
One black as night, one gold-bedight. 

And one that looked at me. 
And praised my growing garden : 
I ask my God for pardon, 

I loved him of the three. 



132 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



Strangfe thing^s come out of the sea : 

I loved him well, ah me ! 
There came a wind that blights the kind 

Of flowers lilies be. 

Mary, Mother of charity. 
Now I pray for pardon : 
Here, within my garden, 

Sin came unto me ; 

Mother, I call to thee ; 
Right the rue that came unto 

The lily-blooms and me ! 



133 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 




THE DESERTED SCHOOL 

HERE broods a pathos of a time long past 
evety nook and every grass-g'rown 
way; 
The fences lean as tired out at last, 

That once pent in so many lads at play. 

The doors g:ape open, tot one harks in vain 
For human voices or for hurrying feet ; 

The rusty weather-cock creaks out that rain 
Or days uncloudy come, or snow and sleet. 



134 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



The gables droop, the windows, staring-eyed, 
Do seem to mock one pitying the place; 

A thousand birds and flowers long have tried 
To put upon the scene a summer face* 

But spite of them, a silence wide and deep 
Clings round the corners, sits on every stone: 

It is a spot for lingering and sleep. 
For guessing other fortunes than your own. 

I people all the playground up and down 

With rushing forms and sound of laughter 
high ; 

I watch the light of evening like a crown 
Upon the walls, till pales the western sky* 



135 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



I wonder how those sturdy limbs have fared 
That since have wandered far as east and west ; 

I wonder who from sorrows have been spared, 
I strive to read the hearts that have been blest ; 

And so my love wotild follow, one by one. 
The life of each, and all its changes know — 

Until the faces fade, as did the sun 
That lit the players in the long-ago. 

And I am left a solitary, all 

My youth gone from me, in a daze to take 
Mid-manhood^s burden up, until I fall 

Upon the beaten highway of Heartbreak. 



136 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 




THE WORLD ASLEEP 

[AKING by night, a great and tender 

thought 
Rolled in upon my soul; I seemed to 

see 
Millions of men of high and low degree, 
Women and children small, — all overwrought 
With labor, sin or weakness, or distraught 
Through passion's power, — in deep tranquillity, 
With placid breasts and breath that issued free, 
As if they lay at peace, regretting naught. 



137 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



And O it was a wonderful mild sight. 

Those helpless forms of all God's creatures there, 

Worldlings and saints, alike as dove and dove, 

Resuming innocence and lost delight. 

All quieted and with sleep's magic fair. 

One in the Father's watch and ward of love. 



138 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 




THE UNFORGOTTEN 

[HENE'ER I see, hurrying through 

worldly ways, 
Those who forget the friends they once 

have known, 
Who seemed like very kinsmen of their own 
For fond affection : merged now in the haze 
That broods o*er the Eternal ; The old days 
Faint too and far, like fairy tales outflown 
From rooms of childhood, — I must inly moan 
That Time such numbing power upon us lays. 



139 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



As if the Past were not a playground, where 

The tjnforgottcn mates slip to and fro 

In games whose dimness makes them doobly 

fair. 
The heart's best comradery, when all is said ; 
As if less lovely were the Long Ago, 
Or men could lose their dearness, being dead* 



140 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



'^ WORDS, WORDS, WORDS'' 

^S^IHE melancholy Prince did surely err : 
|J|^^ Each several word is as a vital sign 

That here some man has tasted Life's 
rich wine, 
Been thrall to ill, been Beauty's worshipper. 
Or mayhap felt the immemorial stir 
Of passion. Words are symbols that divine 
The more than mortal that is subtly thine ; 
They stand for all the dreams that ever were. 
They have their regal fortunes, and their falls 
Like Lucifer from heaven ; tragic days 
Are theirs, and love's soft interludes 
Of music lyric-sweet along the ways; 
At whiles, some nether hell their sound recalls ; 
Yet o'er supernal heights their meaning broods. 



141 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 




A FORECAST 

HROUGH all the wood the rain drops 
ceaselessly 
And every whiff of air shakes down on 
me 
Dank hints of storm, dark auguries of skies 
Unchanged and cheerless : so, in hopeless wise 
I trudge, until a gleam of light ahead 
Reveals the open, makes my soul less dead. 
Into the day I step, — thou foolish one. 
The rain has long been o'er, behold the sun ! 
The forest did but lie, the storm is done. 



142 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



Love, it may be that in some sunlit land 
Beyond the present troublingf, now you stand 
And smile most tenderly, because I dream 
The rain is fallingf and, lead-hearted, deem 
No hope can pierce the limitless gray shore : 
Maybe, beyond 'tis shining evermore. 
And you await me with the old-time grace, 
The same dear eyes, the same divine dear face, 
One with the sun in making glad the place* 



143 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 




SOUND IN SILENCE 

[ALKING when all the ways seemed 
wondrous still, 
I suddenly was ware it was not so : 
The silence was a web of sound, below, 
Above, that did the earth and heavens fill. 
The wood-hid thrush, the field-sparrow's sliding^ 

trill. 
The dominant insistence of the crow. 
The shrill of crickets and the voiceful flow 
Where curve the river currents down the hill. 
The wind amidst the pines, the far-off calls 
Of boys at play, the hayers at their task 
"With creaking carts, the lowing cows — they all 
Were present, like the face behind the mask. 
The silence swarmed with noises, nay, was blent 
With many musics, for my solacement. 



144 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



PENELOPE'S LOVER 

^^j^ READ how once Ulysses, far from home, 
^M) Daunting all dangers o'er the wine-dark 

sea, 
Came to the island where the Sirens be 
Who waft sweet song athwart the ocean's foam* 
And there, beneath the blue sky's ample dome, 
For fear those luring strains they might not flee, 
His comrades bound him to the mast, that he 
Might 'scape the enchantment fierce, nor islc- 
ward roam. 

And as I read, I wish the story ran. 
That in the hero's breast love beat so strong 
No Siren's voice, no sound of soothing song, 
Could tempt him, on his ship, to change his plan, 
And slack the oar that should, by sun or star. 
Dip towards Penelope and Ithaca* 



145 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 




WALL STREET 

]TRAIT fiver, with its hoatse and fever- 
ous flood 
Of money-makets ; on that turbulent 
tide 
Hourly men sink, or bring their argosies 
To unhoped havens. On that tiny stage 
The drama of the dollar is played out 
In tragic throes that shake the land ; there gold 
Is God, the devotees are hollow-eyed, 

A touch brings London ; at a mystic word 
The tropics tremble ; while an upraised hand 
"Withers broad grain-fields lovely in the sun 
A thousand leagues away. 



146 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



Meantime^ the spire 
Of Trinity, as set in satire there. 
Points with insistent fingfer to the skies 
Placid above this lust of loss-and-gain, 
And underneath, the aisles of peace and prayei* 
Await the worshippers who still would place 
Christ above Mammon, love before the world. 



147 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



PEACE OUT OF PAIN 



^^1^ S itom some f f oit, bittef in the beginning, 
|^T||y A rare, sweet draught is pressed, finds 

strange televise ; 
So, out of turmoil, pain and sorry sinning. 
All mystically issues peace. 



148 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 




DON'T DREAM, BUT DO! 

IS an easy thing, if you want to know 
How sweet the sttmrner is, just to go 
Down in the fields, or deep in the wood. 
Or fain toward the swash of the sea. 
For they all will teach you how heavenly good 

Such wholesome places be. 
If you seek the soul's warm summer, too, 
Don't dream, but do ! 



149 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



Don*t sit at home with your brain-born book 
And balance questions and pry and look 
Askance at this, or wonder how 

That squares with some ancient doubt ; 
But get in touch with the throbbing Now, 

And let your heart go out 
To your fellow-men who are spent and blue* 
Don't dream, but do ! 

Work in the world for the folk thereof ; 
With every deed that is done in love 
Some criss-cross matter is smoothed for aye ; 

The spirit sees straight and clear ; 
And heaven draws close that was far away, 

As you whistle off each fear. 
Work, for the days are fleet and few. 
Don't dream, but do ! 



150 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



You may worry over God's grinding Laws, 
You may probe and probe for the great First 

Cause ; 
But an hour of life with an honest thrill 

Of self-forgetting joy 
Will ease your mind of its moody ill 

And make you blithe as a boy. 
The plan is simple ; then see it through : 
Don't dream, but do ! 



151 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



A RYME FOR CHRISTMAS 



mil 



RYME for Christmas, ye good folk all, 
A song for the time o^ year 
Make merry music in bower and hall, 
With hey for a day of cheer ! 



But season the jest with a kindly deed. 

And let love deepen the song* 
In the outer ways there are hearts that bleed 

And hands that labor long. 



152 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



As the yole-log butns and the gifts go roundt 

As the indoor tomps are high, 
Oh, gentles, hark to the doleful sound 

Of the homeless 'neath the sky ! 

For how shall ye keep the Christmas-tide, 

Or cherish its Founder^s name, 
Unless that your hearts be open wide 

To His people's want and shame ? 



153 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



PAIN 

j^^^ RIM-FACED fellow, silent g«est 
l^^w At Life's feast, what wiliest with 

me? 
With a great fear onexprest 
At my heart, I follow thee ; 
Leave the lights, the laughter gay, 
Heavy-hearted go away* 

At the last, I thank thee, friend : 
I am weaned from specious show 
Of delight, — the banquet-end 
Meant but surfeit : now I know 
Real from seeming, and am trussed 
For the May-be and the Must. 



154 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



CITY STREETS 



MSAW a sad sight yesterday. 
A girl, whose look was pale 
And stillen-set, was led away 
To serve her term in jail ; 

And as she walked, betwixt two men 

Who vigilantly stepped, 
Her better self came back, — and then. 

Dear angels, how she wept ! 



155 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



And yet, at eve I saw a sight 

Sadder an hundred fold : 
Within a place of glaring light 

A woman, flushed and bold. 

Lifted a glass of feigned cheer. 
And as the drink she quaffed 

She breathed a curse one would not hear, 
And looked to heaven — and laughed ! 



156 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 




MEMORIALS 

RESIDE the shining rivet's btim, 
By vital green of grasses spanned 
And circled by the hills, that rim 

The blue horizon's wonder-land, 

The ruins of a dwelling rise 

Pathetic to the evening skies. 

Mownds, where a hearth fire once was bright j 

And tumbled rails that girdled in 

A garden with its blooms alight 

And waving growths, their next-of-kint 

Above, a well sweep rising sheer 

Out of the wreck of many a year. 



157 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



An eloquence of what is past 
Broods like a ghost aroond the place; 
The dreams that brick and stone outlast 
Sit peering in each other's face; 
Lo, every corner stone is ripe 
"With phantoms of forgotten life. 

Here love was potent, work and play- 
Lifted twin voices clear and strong ; 
There is no other sound to-day- 
Save music of the river's song j 
Across the crumbled years they call, 
The well-sweep and the ruined wall. 



158 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



THE HOMING BIRD 




HE soul is like a homing bird that^s sure 
To wing its way to the beloved place ; 
Above the sea or land, through air more 
pure 
Than mortal breathes, it cleaves the tracts of 
space, 
Steered by a yearning wonderful, elate 
To reach the native loft, the lonesome mate. 



159 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



THEN 



^^SOU cannot understand, my little one, 
^^^j Why tears of tenderness make blind my 

eyes, 
In looking: on yo«r face that, like the s«n. 
Sheds gladness, like a morn of sweet sunrise. 



Perplext, you touch me with a wondering hand ; 
Thank God, 'tis so, — for when long years are 

fled,— 
Then will you know, remember, understand, — 
Then, in the dream-like years when I am dead. 



1 60 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



CREED AND DEED 

1^1^ HE Rose, who teigns the qaeen of 
^fl^^K flowers, 

Quoth to the Violet, 
** One thing, come dear, come wof wl hours, 

I never can forget/* 
** I prithee, make thy wisdom ours,** 

Quoth modest Violet* 



** There*s naught that*s like a clear-cut creed,** 

The regal Rose replied ; 
" So pray your prayer, and bid your bead. 

And keep the law beside/* 
** A goodly deed*s a goodly deed** 

The modest Violet sighed* 



i6i 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



THE UNSPOKEN 



^UR speech is but a surface foam ; below 
^^^W: Broods the unspoken, and her caves are 

rife 
With turbulent powers and passions, to and 
fro- 
The veiled vitalities of under life* 

We meet and part, we say and straight unsay. 
Nor tell our mid-sea longings to our mates ; 

But all the while, deep down and put away, 
The unsaid sways our fortunes and our fates*. 



162 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



PRAYER TIDES 

cMaiins 

^i^lHE opal tints of dawn have come, 
|M^^ The winds opspting all frolicsome ; 
Ah, how may living lips be dttmb ? 
So, Lord, this orison to Thee ! 

3(pnes 

The heat and burden of the day- 
Beats down, the dews have slipt away ; 
There is no heart that seems to pray ; 
Let mine as one more faithful be. 



163 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



Vespers 

The nun-like gray of evening-tide 
Makes worshipful the heavens wide ; 
Anon comes night, the stilly-eyed ; 
The world's a-pause and prays with me. 



164 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



SANCTUARY 

( Vfitten for the Tenth Anniversary of the Library at 
Norfolk, Connecticut) 



^^^ F old the hunted wtetch, if only he 
^[^^|< Might tread the sacred steps and gain 

the shrine, 
Was safe from hurt ; the most high Gods would 

be 
His bulwark, by their presences divine* 



i6s 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



Gasping, he threw himself against their knees 
And felt the grace of their unshaken calm : 
A seaman caught from Life's tumultuous seas, 
A wounded body healed by magic balm. 

****** 

So, from the baffling storms, from hostile spears. 
From strife and struggle that enmesh our day, 
Behold the Sanctuary that the years 
Make but more precious, and shall make alway« 

A place of peace, an altar where the mind 
Finds strength in prayer, a home and haven dear 
Of souls, a senate-house of mortal kind 
Become Immortal — lo, the Gods are here ! 



1 66 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 




REVERY 

Evemnff 

]IM grows the wood; the amber evening 
tints 
Merge into opal skies and stars just seen ; 
Down vistas gloomed and winding there are 
hints 
Of elves and gnomes along the mosses green. 

cMidnight 

A holy song the thrush has distant-sung ; 

The tree-tops murmur like some dreaming sea ; 
Hark! far away a silvern bell has rung 

Twelve strokes^ slow tolled, that faint and fade 
from me. 



167 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



cMorning 

A shaft of gold upon my upturned face 
As fleeting and as shy as any fawn ; 

Sweet odors, stirring winds and forms of grace ; 
Now tell me, is this heaven, or is it dawn ? 



i68 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 




THE YOUNG MAN'S PRAYER 

[HEN f«n of years, O God ! and reckoned 
sage, 
O)mpanioned by the memories that en- 
shrine 
The Past ; when Life has yellowed o*er the page 
Of Youths and, musing, I must needs repine 
The loss of friends, that bitter sign of age» 
White hairs, the silver sign : 

Oh, may the Long Ago loom soft and fair, 
Recalling, not the evil and the stress. 
But tranquil hours, and gentle faces there, 
Flashes of joy, and sacred tenderness ; 
A sense of peace along the evening air, — 
Visions that charm and bless ! 



169 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



TO A CHILD CRYING 



I 
1 



HOU pretty one, why dost thou wail and 
m plain 

So piteously ? Thou hast but lived a day 
And surely thou and sorrow are not grown 
To fellowship, — and yet, poor, tiny child, 
Listening I seem to catch within thy cry 
A bitter protest 'gainst a host of wrongs ; 
Methinks thou weepest, not for thy wee self, 
But for mankind, untutored spokesman of 
The universal ill ; yea, presciently 
Dost, though a babe, foretell to shallow souls 
The depths, the tear-stained dramas of a world* 



170 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



SYMBOLS 



^^1^ SIMPLE, tintless flower ^ the lily 
^^^ white; 

Bwt it symbols what is sweet and putc 
and fight, 
And it thrills to my very so«I with love and 
light. 

And a red b«sh, nothing more, is the Judas-tree; 
But whenever it flaunts its sanguine blooms, to 

me 
Comes a vision of Christ, and a dread of 

treachery. 



171 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



MEMORIES 



1 



I S his yarn a seaman spins 
: With a twinkle in his eye, 
Weaving wonders from the past 

While his ship heaves o'er the brine ; 

So the memories that are mine 

Tell their tale beside the mast 

Of Life's bark, that bellies by 

O'er Time's sea of songs and sins. 



172 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



THE REFORMER 



W^ 
H 



MAN once stood before a frowning wall 
Whereon was writ a lie since ancient 
days, 

And threw his heart's blood by the cwpful straight 
Against the legend, so to wipe it out, 
Tapping his veins of all their purple yield 
In his desire* At last he grew so weak 
That, tottering-limbed, he heaved glazed eyes to 

heaven. 
Sighed like a weary child, smiled once, and fell. 



173 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



And when his dost was mingled with the mould 

That giveth birth to flowers, the people woke 

One morn, and looked «pon the wall, to see 

A clean erasure of the glozing words 

Had grieved the man so, he that calmly slept, 

Oblivious alike of loves and lies 

That make oor human story* 

Then there ran 
A whisper, soon a cry, across the land : 
** God urged him to the act, and he was glad 
To spill his blood and make us clearer-eyed/' 
Whereat the very folk who carelessly 
Passed by that day he drained his throbbing 

strength 
And paled his flesh, upreared a cenotaph 
And deified his name to after-times. 



174 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



HYMN FOR A TOWN 

(Sung at the 250tli Anniversary of the founding of 
MiddletowDt G>nn.) 

(HERE the fed man roved of yore 
By a stately water- lane, 
Lot was sown a seed that bore 
H«ndred-foId of goodly grain ; 
Which the hardy pioneers 
Harvested with blood and tears. 




175 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



Homely times were those, and 8:i'im^ . 

By the green-rimmed r iver-side ; 
Oft with battle smoke were dim, 

Where the stanch forefathers died ; 
But, with sounds of prayer and praise, 
Came white peace and sweeter days* 

Ships were built of sturdy frame. 
And the marts with trade were rife ; 

Schools uprose in wisdom*s name. 
Churches hymned the higher life ; 

So the holdfast English race 

Set God^s seal upon the place. 



176 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



"W"c have reaped what they have sown. 

Honoted, down the streets we tread, 
Carven clear in chang^eless stone. 

Be the memories of the dead ; 
For through them our town doth bide 
Beautiful her stream beside* 

Not to them alone, to Thee, 
God of elder years and ours. 

Be the laud, for Thou canst see 
In the root the pledge of flowers ; 

Though man's ways be passing strange, 

Yet Thy counsels do not change. 



177 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



Gty of out love and life, 

Rivcf-town of spreading: trees. 

Peaceful, after early strife. 
Prospered by the centuries. 

Thou forever shalt endure. 

If thy faith be firm and pure. 



178 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



OUR CITY OF AERIAL LIGHT 

(The Buffalo Fair) 

C^^T loomed, in summct*s morningf hours, 
^1^ A clustered Otient of towers ; 

And in the splendid blaze of noon 

I gloried in its stately boon 
Of colors, wandered in a trance 

Past many a vision of romance. 

But when the dark was come, behold ! 

It grew a magic burg of gold, 
With soul released, above the night, 

Our city of aerial light ! 



1/9 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



While marble-gifdied waters gleamed 
In mystic hues and tints undreamed^ 

A thousand thousand points of fire 
Blent in one heavenward, high desire. 

O land we love, take heart of grace. 
For thou hast wrought this wonder-place ! 

O land of lands, be thine the same 
Pure aspiration of the flame ! 



1 80 



PLAY-ROOM POEMS 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



I. 

SNOW AND RAIN 

^ f S^ ELL me (q«oth Lilian) what is the snow ? 
JM^^j ** Up in the very highest heaven 

Circle the great throne angels seven. 

Nearest to God, you know. 
While, inwoven their garments through. 
Are pearls, pure gems of a saintly hue ; 
And, as the wide wings beat the air, 

Away up there. 
They shake white pearls on the earth below ; 

And that is the snow/' 



183 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



TcII me (quoth Lilian) what is the rain ? 
** Up in the very highest heaven 
Circle the great throne angels seven, 
Nearest to God, again. 
While, inwoven their garments through, 
Glisten great diamonds glad of hue. 
And, as the wide wings rise and fall. 
They scatter them all 
Earthward, to catch on the way a stain ; 
And that is the rain/* 



184 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



THE WIND-BROOM 

wind-bfoom sweeps so wondfous 
clean 
That when you hear it up on high 
Go swishingf by, go swishing by, 
You may be sure the sky-folk mean 
To make their homes all fair to see, 
Garnished, and gay as gay can be 
O' nights, for starry company* 




185 



MESSAGE AND MELODY 



m. 

STAR SHIPS 

^I^^HE stars are ships on a blue^ cold sea^ 
U^^^ Gold ships^ that sail and sail ; 

They keep their course right steadily^ 
Unvexed by any gale* 

For God their helmsman is, I trow ; 

In sea-craft of the air 
So skilled, that all the winds that blow 

Seem favoring and fair* 



1 86 



MAR J^> J903 



